Why the National Labor College Attracts
So Few Unionists to its Degree Programs

The second in a series

The National Labor College (NLC) is a fully-accredited undergraduate academic institution, subsidized by the AFL-CIO, to provide any of its 11.6 union members and their families from any part of the United States and Canada with an opportunity to acquire a college education and a baccalaureate degree.

Located on a suburban 47-acre plot in Silver Spring, Maryland, the college permits its students to work for a four-year degree without leaving their job, their home or their community. As an additional appeal, the college offers academic credits for “life experience” and accepts transfers from other colleges up to a maximum of 56 credits. That still leaves students with the task of earning an additional 64 credits for the 120 required for a four-year degree, Tuition is $174 per credit, to be raised to $199 per credit by May 10, 2010.

For three decades, the college, then known as the George Many Center for Labor Studies, had been providing a venue for week-long conferences of AFL-CIO affiliates, as well as special events sponsored by the Federation. In 1999, when the Center was transformed into the National Labor College, there was an enthusiastic response from union leaders, activists and labor educators.

There were glowing expectations that NLC would become a major source for producing thousands of well-trained, broadly-educated and articulate new leaders, who were badly needed by a weakened labor movement suffering a decline in membership and bargaining power. A few optimistic union leaders dreamed that the college would become “Labor’s West Point.”

Unfortunately, the college has thus far been a disappointment. It has two serious problems: it is operating at a loss and urgently needs a large influx of funding for its long-term survival. It also has too few students, with little success in increasing its enrollment. That is why the AFL-CIO has entered into a partnership with the Princeton Review, a “for profit” company with plenty of cash to invest, but with no particular interest in unions and working families.

Students Are Frustrated at Lack of Human Contact

One of NLC’s biggest academic problems is that students don’t see their instructor or classmates face-to-face as in traditional classroom settings. Instead, they receive weekly assignments by e-mail and are required to respond within a week or so, also by e-mail. Under this system, the instructors in the degree programs obviously have nothing to do with a student’s speaking ability.

To deal at least partially with the problem, NLC employs a new software technology called “Blackboard,” which enables students to communicate with their instructor and other students. To operate this system, students must equip their computers with added features appropriate to their computer model. But .Blackboard does not provide human contact in the “classroom.”

Another frustrating feature, unique to NLC, is the requirement that students in the degree programs spend at least one full week each semester at the Silver Spring campus, presumably to actually meet and discuss their coursework with their instructor and fellow students. But it is very difficult to get all the students to leave their jobs and homes at a given date for an entire week.

Besides, the cost of the special weekend for room and board comes to $199 per night. or well over $1,300 for the week. That’s a big extra expense for a worker, exclusive of travel to and from the campus and the loss of a week’s wages.

A Very High Dropout Rate

“Our retention rate (Fall to Fall enrollment) is under 50 percent, primarily due to our student population of working adults,” said Tom Kriger, Vice President for Academic Affairs. That’s the same as saying, “The dropout rate is more than 50 percent.”

There is a total of only 225 students enrolling in the two degree programs each semester. If NLC has made any serious effort to increase enrollment, it has clearly been unsuccessful. There seems hardly any interest in the National Labor College among the AFL-CIO’s 57 international unions, 51 State Federations and some 500 Central Labor Councils that belong to the 11.6 million-member Federation.

Something is obviously wrong with the operation and management of the National Labor College. Can't we fix what's wrong by our efforts within organized labor, instead of depending on an investing company that's out to make a profit?

Harry Kelber played a prime academic role in creating the New York “labor College,” and serving as its first Dean, when it became a division of Empire State College

The third article on the National Labor College will be posted here on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 and on our two web sites: www.laboreducator.org and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org